Aghanim's Tier List — DPS Cores

This time around, when making the Aghanim’s Tier List, we decided to separate the whole Dota roster into several parts, concentrating on DPS cores in the first blog of the series. Aghanim’s can’t be analyzed in a vacuum, since third or fourth Roshan aside, it has a price tag, hence an opportunity cost. And the opportunity costs for farming cores, utility cores and supports are very different.

For DPS cores, our tier list will follow these general guidelines:

S Tier — excellent upgrade, can be bought as a third-fourth major item

C Tier — situationally decent. Can be picked over moonshard or backpack refresher

D Tier — worse than both moonshard and backpack refresher

Do keep in mind that we are talking about these heroes played in a typical first or second position, not as utility cores. There is going to be an overlap in the future and some upgrades will move up and down in the Tiers, depending on the role of the hero.

S Tier

Invoker’s Agh’s is probably the only must-buy Aghanim’s in the game. The hero simply doesn’t work without it, at least not too well. There are builds with delayed upgrade and Spirit Vessel, but at one point all Invokers want to have access to a 2-second cooldown Invoke. Otherwise they are very limited in their spell usage.

This upgrade didn’t look great on paper, but it is absolutely devastating in reality. Combining two Skeleton Walks, you can potentially get a 480% increase in damage to a single target, without even using your ultimate. Clinkz is a teamfight hero now and with the upgrade he isn’t even limited by his cooldowns. Aghanim’s Stats are also pretty important for the hero—extra HP and Mana can go a long way for glass cannon characters with frequent mana problems.

There is a chance this upgrade is overrated, but so far it looks exceptionally strong. Adding an extra 100+ damage to each autoattack and ability is a massive increase in DPS, pushing power and sustain of the hero. Moreover, it makes the hero considerably less cooldown-dependant and turns her silence into a small "nuke" and slow.

The change in 7.21 that made it so Static Field procs on Nimbus lightning was largely overlooked, because the hero wasn’t in a good place. Currently, the combined damage from Lightning Bolt and Static Field make Nimbus one of the potentially strongest nukes in the game that keeps on delivering damage over and over again. Do keep in mind that while Nimbus procs Static Field, the Lightning Bolt from it does not benefit from Zeus’s spell damage amplification.

A Tier

This is borderline S Tier, with the only caveat being that Ember Spirit really needs both acceleration and safety items first. In games where the enemy doesn’t have enough lockdown, it can be purchased quite early and will make the game a nightmare for the enemy, but otherwise some sort of extra survivability or a farming tool is necessary.

Two ultimates and a shorter cooldown make it so that if Bloodseeker ever gets the tempo control, it is going to be really hard for the enemy to wrestle it back. Rupture is currently weaker damage-wise than it used to be, but it is still a very strong initiation and lockdown spell.

Broodmother's Agh's can't be underestimated, since it provides the hero with a lot of mobility and extra map control. If generally the hero is capable of taking over a single lane, with the help of Agh's she can easily control two and be a lot more oppressive as a siege hero.

This can be the fourth-fifth inventory slot against heavy lockdown lineups, since with the help of Satanic it can immensely increase Gyro’s survivability. It can even be picked up slightly earlier, if you need the extra HP versus high burst lineup.

Laguna going through spell immunity solves a lot of problems against squishier targets with BKB. The burst damage is massive and has little counterplay, allowing Lina to stay a relevant nuker for a very long time. It is a generally good item that shines really bright in games against agility carries with high armor and low HP pool. Building for right-click DPS and utility is preferable otherwise.

This Agh’s is pretty similar to Gyrocopter’s. It increases the DPS of the hero without directly influencing his attack speed or damage, but it doesn’t provide potential passive lifesteal, making it slightly worse. As a DPS increase, it is still stronger than Moonshard in the later stages of the game, and can be pretty good with on-hit effects of Echo Sabre, Maelstrom or Diffusal Blade.

The hero isn’t particularly good right now, but his Agh’s is still pretty amazing. The amount of extra damage Tinker gets from this item is pretty high and unless your team desperately needs extra lockdown, it can be an amazing purchase quite early.

There are games where you absolutely need it on Ursa, but it is also generally good for boosting sustained DPS of the hero and his survivability. Lower cooldown means potential multiple uses throughout the fight.

Extra familiars might not be relevant at attacking heroes in the later stages of the game, but their split-pushing power should not be underestimated. With four familiars with the help of talent, Visage can continuously weaken or kill waves across the map, prolonging the game and forcing opponent mistakes.

This is borderline B Tier for a DPS Wraith King, but seven seconds of extra life often means getting an extra kill or finishing the objective. Can be purchased to support the second DPS core on your team and should generally be avoided, if your teams still lacks damage.

B Tier

Players really overvalue Aghanim’s Scepter from Alchemist. It is a late-game stalemate breaker at best and other items should take priority over it. Moreover, it no longer gives extra stats to the receiving hero, making it a lot worse.

Once again, Anti-Mage really needs his own items first, before going for the Aghanim’s Scepter. It can be occasionally purchased as an actual inventory slot against strong Buyback heroes such as Spectre or Enigma, but Anti-Mage generally thrives on being ahead in items and Aghanim’s stats do not help with maintaining his momentum.

It looks cool, and the extra stats on Dragon Form are pretty neat, but for Dragon Knight to stay relevant, he really needs a lot of other items. On top of it, the fourth level of Dragon is at its best when the BKBs are already low on charges, since the slow effects no longer pierce spell immunity.

This Agh’s is really good against illusion heroes and is probably below mediocre in other cases. It can be a necessity, but Drow shouldn’t be picked with Agh’s in mind to counter illusion-based heroes.

Spell Immunity is what makes this purchase worthwhile. When playing against teams with no hard saves or hard lockdowns, Scepter is very much justifiable, especially if you had a good early game. Otherwise it is probably better to skip the upgrade altogether, since it can be occasionally detrimental.

Luna’s Agh’s was picked up a couple of times, mostly in matchups against Terrorblade. In situations where you might not be able to become the big, scary carry, pivoting towards it as a tempo option for taking objectives can be necessary and pretty powerful.

Thinking of fifth-sixth slot on a hero with a total of 12 slots should be different, but it is a situationally excellent item that allows for constant split-push with a lot of tower pressure as well. It is not plan A most of the time, but if the game ever goes late, Aghanim’s Scepter on Lone Druid can give your team an extra win condition or force opponent mistakes.

1.4 seconds cooldown on God’s Rebuke allow the hero to be a relevant DPS core in the later stages of the game. High BAT makes it harder for Mars to build as a conventional right-clicking DPS core, but this Agh’s ensures high and sustainable amounts of damage. If this is what your team lacks, it might be a good idea, otherwise more auras is generally a better choice.

This is an interesting option for DPS Mirana, since it is also a farming tool. It is generally decent, but the choice of whether you want it or not should be made around the third-fourth slot timing. Sometimes going for extra magic damage can be worth it, even on carry or mid Mirana. Sometimes it won’t make sense.

This Aghanim’s Scepter looks weak overall. 40 seconds cooldown means that it is rare for the ability to be used twice in a fight and the stats are not particularly impressive on the hero either, but if you manage to asynchronize enemy respawn timers and apply continuous pressure, the game can quickly turn in a continuous 4v5.

Very similar to Mirana’s upgrade, the choice has to be made pretty early on this upgrade. It increases the tempo of the hero and the stats are actually pretty good on QoP, but the overall effect is more strategic than tactical.

Razor is a tanky frontliner who wants the enemy to pay attention to him, while his actual carry is uninterrupted in dealing damage. Because of it, Agh’s upgrade for the hero faded away, but in some games it can be a situational sixth slot, after all the necessary survivability items have been purchased.

The upgrade for Spectre is actually great, but once again the hero really wants all the stats she can get her hands on. It can be a situational fifth or sixth slot in games against split-pushing heroes like Furion, but otherwise should not take actual inventory space.

AoE Vortex is amazing. It is effective, it looks great and it allows Storm Spirit to initiate fights really well. It is also not necessarily in line with how the hero want to be played. Having more damage and more mana regeneration is generally going to be preferable.

As long as Tiny has enough damage, this purchase can be amazing. The problem is, even core Tiny rarely builds many DPS items until later in the game—the hero needs a lot of mobility to stay relevant. Sometimes it is going to be possible to squeeze this into the sixth slot, especially against squishier opponents.

Not the first choice for DPS Weaver, but a good option as the first consumable before Moonshard. Gives the hero a lot of extra utility, while lower cooldown allows Weaver himself to be more aggressive.

Faceless Void is not a typical carry and his DPS is somewhat limited, but Chronosphere is among the strongest ultimates in the game, in the right lineup. Lower cooldown on ulti as a fifth-sixth slot can greatly help with transition into an actual DPS carry later on, where it can be later consumed.

C Tier

This one is really weird. On one hand, a timely DD or Haste can turn the game, on the other—it is not a reliable DPS or Utility item. There are times where it can be a worthwhile purchase and has an interesting potential synergy with Alchemist, if you are lucky to get Bounty runes, but otherwise there are better, more active options.

Survivability is key for Leshrac past early game, when most enemies will have BKBs. The DPS increase is noticeable, but it does nothing once the enemy is spell immune and Agh’s doesn’t really help surviving through it.

1600 range on a three second fear is great and all, but it has a 155-second cooldown. It can be used to break highground, since Terrorblade is more than capable of destroying at least one barrack in the span of three seconds, but otherwise not worth an actual inventory slot.

A disable against particularly annoying supports such as Winter Wyvern, Dazzle or Oracle and it can come in handy once in a while, but not worth a slot. If you are sacrificing a slot for a hard disable, why not go for Scythe or Abyssal instead?

D Tier

At this point, it is hard to see what Assimilate does for your team. Extra mobility for another immobile core? A save? Free AoE slow from assimilating Pudge? It can come in handy once in a game 60+ minutes in, by allowing Lifestealer to save his teammate, but it is definitely not worth a slot.

This is essentially an item that costs 4200 gold and gives extra gold to the enemy. Can help with pushing the lanes, but with BoTs and TPs it is just not enough of a split-pushing threat to justify a purchase.

The immediate refresh of abilities on kill is pretty great, but if you are so far ahead that it comes into play multiple times in quick succession, it probably wasn’t the deciding factor. And if you have built it earlier, you are no longer as far ahead as you used to be, since stats from Agh’s do nothing to help PA deal damage.

This has the potential to look like B or even A Tier in some games, but at this point it is no longer a DPS Slark. It is a good 8th slot, but is otherwise outclassed by Refresher and Moonshard. At least in the way the hero is being currently played.

This is very cute and better players and teams might find ways for this to look absolutely overpowered, but for the most part it is not the item TA wants until after she is six-slotted. Similar to Spectre, however, it can be pretty good against split-pushing heroes.

This "DPS-Core" ranking is a horrible idea. Some Scepters allow for non-cores to deal 6 slot carry levels of damage, such as Willow.
For your S tier Invoker & Clinkz & Zeus are fine ; DP fuck no. You clearly haven't played recently.

MK's are building it as 3rd item after Echo/Mael - S-tier 100%
Brood is S-tier aswell since it actually allows them to take over the entire woods around the t2's on either side of the map ; they're still relevant at 40m into the game thanks to that. It's so good it's honestly never later than your 3rd item.
Pango clearly S-tier aswell ; they greaves/mael/aghanims scepter and usually have it all before 25m, they're a royal pain in the ass against any carry. If you're rating the damage it DOES, ok - but it's not what people build it for.
PA is S-tier from mid, you build Desolator into MKB for the most/cheapest damage output possible & Scepter next. It allows to dive in & kill under Blur & Blur-Strike back out. If you're really ahead it also allows for Dagger refresh on a regular basis.

Axe's Scepter will be in "NON-DPS" cores but actually deserves a special mention because it's insanely OP & you use it on literally EVERYTHING you see to maintain 550 MS which allows for insane map movement, and huge teamfight presence.

Mostly i agree with articles from dbuff, but Who the Hell thinks that ta agha is useless enough to give it as Last rank agha. Biggest ability of ta is Flash farming lanes + nuke downing weaker heroes, coz she has many items thanks Flash farming... What is helping out with growing her abilities to be used for 100% agha... Btw my rank is divine in these days, it means No thing special. Just think about main reasons why to play heroes and if the agha helps out then play it.

@P9^
You are actually raising an interesting point that is worth discussing in the comments, but one not exactly suited for a blog post. There is a difference between pub play and pro play, even if it is top100 immortal players playing against each other. In our blog posts, we frequently try to look for and identify great things in the professional scene that might not be as popular in pubs, but could be incorporated with relative ease, even in lower level play.

Though the idea of Wisp as a DPS core with Aghs is simply terrible. Don't do that. Aghs on Wisp is D tier for supports and Wisp DPS core is not a thing. There is nothing on the hero to support DPS playstyle and he is firmly a position four, regardless of what MMR you are. Don't develop bad habits and you will improve faster. It might work for you at a certain MMR, but once you climb to at least >50% percentile (~3.5k) suboptimal things simply stop working.

@ YarCteR

Yup, there is going to be an overlap between heroes in different categories and some Agh's for supports and utility cores are going to be higher tier simply from their ability to add damage. Agh's Willow allows her to deal insane damage, but it doesn't make her a DPS-core. From what I am seeing from stats and from my own judgement, I would probably place it around A-tier, borderline S-tier. It is great, but not always so great that you can skip great utility items or extra control. In some games it might be better than hex, in some it won't and with the upgraded talent the timing difference would be probably worth the wait.

Pango and Axe are coming up in the utility category. PA from mid with two cheap maximum efficiency DPS items sounds interesting. I haven't seen PA played that way I am not sure many matchups in mid will allow PA to get tempo items fast enough for them to matter, but it might work in some games. Though it is inconsistent and the most consistent way to play PA still doesn't have space for an early Agh's.

DP Agh's is bonkers. Just watch ESL Birmingham, it is usually third or forth item for all DPs. You get your cheap stats, get Eul's and/or Drums and then Agh's and just go ham. There is so much DPS and sustain from a single item, it is almost definitely getting nerfed. It adds a 120+ damage to everything you do. Also: Hit a 4-man Swarm? get 100 HP back. Hit a 2 man silence? 50 HP. Use your sustain abilities? 100 extra HP. I don't think any item in the game gives you ~400HP, ~2 armor, ~300 Mana and +120 attack damage for 4200 and that is without taking into account +100 damage on Crypt Swarm (~33% Spell Amp) and constant slow that pierces BKB. It is stupid good and should be rushed.

@ Mr. Schwifty

TA Agh's was originally in B Tier with Spectre, as a situational item for dealing with split-pushing, but then we kinda got dissuaded when MidOne went for several rapiers+moonshard without even thinking about it. That got us to thinking, why he didn't even consider it and there are several problems with it:

1. Traps are revealable, and you can be easily baited into a bad position.
2. 2 seconds against any split-pushing player worth their salt is a lot of time, they typically don't stand in the same position for that long.
3. Stats are not what TA wants at all, not in her inventory at least, when she really needs to deal as much burst damage, while not dying.

I am really hoping to see it as a 5-6th slot with a highly mobile team, where something like Clockwerk initiates from a huge range and TA can soon appear close to the target, similarly how Spectre (or any global presence heroes) is sometimes played, but that requires so much planning an execution. With Spectre, you appear on top of your enemy. With Io combo, you are free to go wherever you want, to get to punching whenever your team provides catch. Furion can TP across the whole map. TA is limited to having her traps, which can be destroyed and will probably result in a gem response. So on top of being less value, it is also less consistent. Maybe it should be a Tier higher, maybe some teams will find a way to abuse it around Roshan, but there is a lot of possible counter-play, especially in high-traffic areas, and even when it works, it doesn't work amazingly well.

Guys, this is for dps core. Calm down and wait for next article, other hero will be mentioned.
Though I have suggestion, maybe you can write the effect of the aghs for each hero? To be honest, there are so many addition to aghs that I cant remember all, and I have not seen that many new aghs in my game.

Ah also, can you make it clear what is dps cores? Some heroes that i can call dps core (pugna, timber) are not there while hero which is not often played as dps core (mars) is there. I know they are not played as pos 1, but dps wise, they are capable

As someone with over 200 games in Death Prophet, you're absolutely correct. Octarine core basically replaced Bloodstone a while back but the problem was the cd increase that came around at the same time to put DP in the dumpster. She just couldn't be effective outside her ultimate. The extra damage at 10 from talents has helped a little but again she has for quite some time felt like she just can't be helpful early on enough to survive until she has the items necessary. It's just a constant uphill battle. Now, however, she has at least half of the stuff she needs from multiple items all rolled into one. it feels like the halfway point tideover item (kind of like a midgame mask of madness) until you can get the legit heart, octarine, and shivas.

I'm a bit surprised to hear you might really like the willow aghs, but maybe I'll hold that discussion until the support tier list.

EDIT:

DO YOU THINK this would put DP legitimately back on the map? Sure, she was picked, even in the final game, but the entire tourney was something of a laugh. It feels premature to call anything done in that tournament proof of the direction the major will go.

^pretty much lycan aghs 2.0. Most of the time you will be feeding treant to the enemy. Even if you want the lane pushed,you can still do it fairly well even without agh or you could also tp treant then proceed to use scroll.

@KawaiiSocks As I statsman myself (Data Analytics) ; I strongly believe there shouldn't be a "DPS-CORE" or anything ranking. It should straight up be split into:

- What the Aghs itself brings with no other core items than boots and small stat items
- What the Aghs brings with 6/7 slots & consumed

I think people are surprised to see S-tier DP but not Rubick/Pugna etc in the same list.
And DP really isn't S-tier because it's made her SO MUCH EASIER to kill - they delay/skip Euls & then the Aghs itself delays the Octarine ; she cannot fight at high MMR without her ult.

Splitting hairs over "DPS/Nondps" shouldn't be the idea. Nearly all heroes in the game can achieve high amounts of damage one way or the other -- I'm thinking Witch Doctor as a prime example of S-tier and Magnus as a prime example of D ; no utility Magnus wants the item and no damage Magnus wants it either, unless it's a freebee from Alch.

It really should be about how much the Aghs is game changing.
I get how you'd want to have multiple articles, but how about simply going from lowest to highest tier?
The format is easier and makes no distinctions.

@YarCteR
The problem is the opportunity cost. 4200 on a farming hero with 450+ average GPM in the first 20 minutes of the game is very different from 4200 gold on a hero with 300 GPM, part of which is spent on wards/sentries/ Sure, Disruptor Agh's is awesome, but for the same price you can get ~force+glimmer and in >50% of scenarios it is going to be the better play. So we felt tiers for different types of heroes with different average/possible GPMs is a way to go. S Tier for supports is something you can sometimes skip utility items for, not excellent 3rd or 4th slot.

Basically, the attempt was to define, normalize and better categorize Aghs' with opportunity cost in mind, taking into account farm priority. I guess at the end of the day it is a question of preference and also, importantly, readability. 117 paragraphs, however small, are kind of hard to chew through in one sitting for an average reader.

People are overlooking Elder Titan's Septor. Spell immunity while channelling stomp is pretty amazing (No way to stop the stomp). And that's not counting the additional 2 sec you get of spell immune for every hero put to sleep.

Wyvern is probably utility ranking if you are playing her as low potential pos5, but I'd say if you build her into actual aghs dps core, she becomes sniper with upgraded skadi and at least worth mentioning here.

Aghs + one more dps/sustain item and we are going to become pain in the ass for even am since any debuff he dispel gets refreshed instantly.

Troll is definitely higher than C tier, but the highest id put it is at A. Reason being that a 35 second CD on an ultimate that makes you unkillable unless theres an axe on the other team is ridiculously good. It allows you to take a lot more fights and keep up the pressure you need to as a Troll before you start falling off.

i bet they are not read at all
what they do
*think* ah wheres is my favourite hero, wut, wheres is my beloved hero
scroll until bot, then post comment
ya they write, before read
not need brain at all while post comment

Given you don't have Meepo on the list I take it you don't rate his aghs high at all. As a Meepo fan, interested to have your take on this :)

With the change to his passive, it has the net effect of giving him one more Ransack, on top of all the other advantages of having an extra Meepo (damage, mobility, xp gain if you get it early enough).

Admittedly I haven't run the maths on this, but I did try aghs a few times since Ransack was introduced.

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